Re: Help needed with home network configuration
On Fri 16 Mar 2018 at 08:48:50 (+0000), Joe wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Mar 2018 23:26:38 -0400
> rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > On Thursday, March 15, 2018 09:42:25 PM David Wright wrote:
> > > On Thu 15 Mar 2018 at 10:18:20 (-0700), Don Armstrong wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 14 Mar 2018, David Wright wrote:
> > > > > When you reprogram routers with dd-wrt, does that allow it to
> > > > > do, say, wired bridging even though the manufacturer's formware
> > > > > doesn't allow for that?
> > > >
> > > > openwrt and dd-wrt both allow wired bridging[1] (or
> > > > pseudo-bridging by routing if your wireless hardware doesn't
> > > > support that).
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > 1: I suppose there might be some network hardware which doesn't
> > > > support actual bridging of wired interfaces, but I've yet to see
> > > > such an example.
> > >
> > > I think the router I've been using for the last few years is one.
> > > Although the User Manual from May 2013¹ has a brief section on
> > > bridging, the June 2014² revision is missing that part. Both have
> > > a "Wireless Repeating" link on the figure for Advanced Wireless
> > > Settings, but the link is not present in the actual configuration
> > > screen on the device.
> > >
> > > In any case, the May 2013 manual says that to use it as a repeater,
> > > even wired, you have to set security to WEP or None. That's no use.
> > >
> > > I wandered into BestBuy and couldn't find much about bridging on
> > > any of their router boxes. (Obviously I'm eschewing so-called
> > > WiFi Wireless Repeaters.) What I'm trying to ascertain is that
> > > all the wired bridging functionality is performed by the software
> > > and not any special hardware in the device.
>
> I'd have thought that hardwired hubs are long gone, that all devices
> with multiple Ethernet ports are switches and therefore software-based.
> Indeed, many routers can be configured as VLANs.
I guess I missed where "hubs" came into the conversation. Anyway,
I was hoping to carry on using the current router if that were
possible, but might have to bite the bullet and buy two replacements
for it.
> I had a different problem recently, trying to work out which of a few
> high-bandwidth 802.11ac routers could be configured in pairs as wireless
> point-to-point links, which also uses the term 'bridging', and no, they
> can't all do it. But documentation is usually very poor for the
> lesser-used functions of most things. 'Bridging' is also used to mean
> wireless repeating, which is a different thing again.
Yes, and wireless repeating is rather ambiguous. I want the repeater
to be a wireless device, but connected to the other one by a CAT5 cable.
> > > Required topology:
> > >
> > >
> > > ╲│╱ ╲│╱ ╲│╱
> > > ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐
> > > │W L╞ CAT5 │W L╞═PC │ ROKUs │
> > > [Modem]══╡A A╞═════════════╡A A╞ │ etc │
> > > │N N╞ │N N╞ └───────┘
> > > │ ╞═PC │ ╞═PC
> > > └───────┘ └───────┘
> > >
> > >
> > > ¹ WNDR3400v3_UM_10May2013.pdf
> > > ² WNDR3400v3_UM_19June2014.pdf
> >
> > I haven't paid attention to this thread from the beginning, but
> > looking at the sketch, I'm wondering what the purpose of the 2nd
> > router is? Why not instead of a router put a switch there, and then
> > (assuming you need another WiFi access point at that position), plug
> > the 2 PCs and a wireless access point (not sure of the right name)
> > into the switch.
>
> The network between the routers is a low-security DMZ, with access to
> the main network only through the port-forwarding of the second router.
OK, assuming you're talking about my diagram and not rhkramer's paragraph
(which doesn't have two routers), I guess you mean Left is the main
network and Right is the second router. I don't want "low security",
and I'm not sure what the implications of the term DMZ is.
What you see in the diagram is what I want to set up, except I haven't
specified exactly which item is wired to which port on which router,
or which wifi device is positioned close to which router.
> I have an Internet router, which provides occasional wireless for
> visitors, and a server acting as a firewall leading to the rest of the
> network, so there's no wireless access to the main network, though I do
> have an old wireless router that I can plug in if I need it temporarily.
This is a house rather than a B&B; there's no guest network here.
Every device needs access to the Internet and to every other device
on both routers (except the only access we'd expect *to* the Rokus
would be to ping them to see if we'd left the TV on).
As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a scheme involving a
LAN-LAN connection rather than LAN-WAN between the routers, but
I haven't figured out whether I'd benefit from that in the sense
of being able to keep my current router as the Left one.
Cheers,
David.
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